| Five years after Brown's death and Ferguson protests, America must commit to doing better Posted: 09 Aug 2019 06:22 AM PDT  More than 1,000 blacks have died at the hands of police since 2014. Protests, push for accountability show a nation still striving for change.
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| Elon Musk Says He Supports 2020 White House Hopeful Andrew Yang Posted: 10 Aug 2019 12:33 PM PDT ![Elon Musk Says He Supports 2020 White House Hopeful Andrew Yang]( "Elon Musk Says He Supports 2020 White House Hopeful Andrew Yang") (Bloomberg) -- Elon Musk supports Andrew Yang, the Tesla Inc. chief executive officer said in a tweet that could give the tech entrepreneur's 2020 White House bid a boost.Musk, who often interacts with some of his almost 28 million followers on Twitter, made the declaration while responding to political commentator Dan Carlin, who uses the handle @HardcoreHistory. Carlin's tweet had cited Yang's earlier tweet on leadership.Musk said in a separate tweet that universal basic income, an idea Yang supports, is "obviously needed."The CEO jokingly added that Yang would be the first "openly goth" U.S. president. Yang told Jezebel in April he wanted to be America's first ex-goth president. The comments came after Yang tweeted some pictures of his younger self and revealed his favorite bands were The Smiths and The Cure.Yang has qualified for the next round of presidential primary debates to be held next month in Houston, the ninth Democrat to do so."The country heard my message and is ready to talk about real solutions to gun violence, the new realities of the American economy, and how we measure our health and success as a nation," Yang said in a statement on Thursday. "I'm excited to have those conversations in Houston and throughout the 2020 election."To contact the reporter on this story: Maria Jose Valero in New York at mvalero3@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Polina Noskova at pnoskova@bloomberg.net, Virginia Van Natta, Ros KrasnyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| A Russian military ammo depot that blew up earlier this week just exploded again Posted: 09 Aug 2019 12:16 PM PDT  The ammo depot, believed to house tens of thousands of artillery shells, exploded on Monday. It just exploded again, injuring at least ten more people.
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| Elderly couple found dead from murder-suicide after they couldn’t afford wife’s healthcare: ‘We will be in the front bedroom’ Posted: 10 Aug 2019 05:23 AM PDT  A man in Washington state has killed both himself and his wife after raising fears about struggling to pay medical expenses for her ongoing health conditions.The couple were identified by the Whatcom County Medical Examiner as Brian S Jones, 77, and Patricia Whitney-Jones, 76.Mr Jones, who lived near the city of Ferndale, called emergency services on Wednesday morning and said he was going to shoot himself, according to the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office. He said he had prepared a note for the sheriff which contained information and instructions. In spite of the operator's efforts to keep him on the line, Mr Jones is then said to have told the operator, "we will be in the front bedroom", before disconnecting the call.Police arrived around 15 minutes later and set up a perimeter around the house and attempted to intervene for about an hour with a crisis negotiator and loud hailer.But it was too late, as officials then used a robot-mounted camera to look inside the home and found the bodies of the married couple. Authorities said they believe Mr Jones shot his wife and then himself. They were found lying together.A statement from Whatcom Sheriff Bill Elfo said state officials are investigating the incident which is deemed to be a murder-suicide.According to the sheriff, Mr Jones told the operator: "I am going to shoot myself".Several notes were left in the home "citing severe ongoing medical problems with the wife and expressing concerns that the couple did not have sufficient resources to pay for medical care", according to the sheriff's statement."It is very tragic that one of our senior citizens would find himself in such desperate circumstances where he felt murder and suicide were the only option. Help is always available with a call to 911," Mr Elfo said in the post.Numerous firearms were seized and two dogs found in the house were taken to an animal shelter.Sherrie Schulteis, a neighbour of the couple, said she often spoke to Mr Jones and watched out for each other's homes but was totally unaware about the extent to which he was struggling mentally and financially."[Mr Jones and I] were always waving and talking about our yards or our flowers," she told The Lynden Tribune. "It's a little tiny community where we all know each other, but we don't really know each other."
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| U.S. service member killed in Iraq: coalition statement Posted: 10 Aug 2019 08:11 AM PDT ![U.S. service member killed in Iraq: coalition statement]( "U.S. service member killed in Iraq: coalition statement") A United States service member advising Iraqi security forces on a mission was killed on Saturday in the northern Nineveh province, the U.S.-led international coalition fighting Islamic State said in a statement. "One U.S. service member died today during an Iraqi Security Force mission in Ninewah province, Iraq, while advising and accompanying the (Iraqi security forces) during a planned operation, the statement said. It added that the name of the service member would be withheld until next of kin have been notified.
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| The Latest: More than 100 join in 'Unity' march in El Paso Posted: 10 Aug 2019 09:29 AM PDT  More than 100 people have marched through downtown El Paso, Texas, on the one week anniversary of a mass shooting that authorities say was carried out by a gunman targeting Mexicans in the Texas border city. The League of United Latin American Citizens organized Saturday's march. Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke, a former congressman from El Paso, spoke to the crowd.
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| Against Universal Background Checks Posted: 09 Aug 2019 12:34 PM PDT  Mitch McConnell has confirmed that when the Senate reconvenes in September to discuss new federal gun-control measures, "universal background checks" will "lead the discussion." If that is the case, the Senate should listen carefully to the proposals on offer, and then politely decline to assent.Absent further examination, "universal background checks" appear to represent the inoffensive extension of an already existing principle. At present, the federal government mandates that an instant background check be run prior to the completion of all commercial and interstate firearms transactions. This being so, the argument runs, there can be nothing wrong with Washington extending that rule to private transfers, to non-commercial transfers, and to purely intrastate transfers.But there can, and there is. The idea is unconstitutional. It requires the establishment of a de facto federal gun registry — long a no-no in American politics. It would considerably inconvenience law-abiding gun owners while doing nothing to prevent the problem, mass shootings, to which it is being touted as a response. And, as even friendly studies from Washington and Colorado have shown, it doesn't work.Upholding the Constitution is a task that falls to all of government's branches, not solely to the Supreme Court. One cannot uphold the Constitution and pass "universal background checks." By explicit design, the federal government is prohibited from acting outside of the limited set of powers that the Constitution has granted to it. None of those powers permit it to superintend private firearms transactions that take place between two residents of a single state. Because it limits its remit to the regulation of federally licensed businesses and of commerce between the states, the existing background-check system does not fall afoul of the limits that have been placed on Washington. Because they explode that remit, universal background checks absolutely do. If the federal government is able to control what two citizens of a state do with their already-manufactured and already-purchased property, the federal government's power has no boundaries. Every election season, Republicans tell us that if they are awarded a majority they will keep the Leviathan at bay. This is a chance for them to prove it.Equally problematic is that universal background checks require the creation of a national gun registry that can be used to check compliance. Indeed, without such a registry, the system is rendered useless because there is no way for the government to prove whether a transaction has been made in compliance with the law or outside of it. Apologists for the idea like to dissemble on this question by insisting that the records would be kept by third parties or that they would be decentralized. But this, of course, is to miss the point. If the government has access to information about who owns which guns, and where, then it has access to a registry. As they have in the past, Americans should resist this development robustly, for the history of gun registries in America is the history of private citizens handing over great gobs of information to the government for no discernible reward. A government that knows where all the guns are is a government that can stage a confiscation drive — or, in the Orwellian parlance of modern gun-controllers, a "mandatory buyback" drive. Those who doubt this need look no further than to Venezuela.And then there is the rather inconvenient fact that universal background checks do not actually work. After Washington, Colorado, and Delaware passed laws mandating that all intrastate transfers involve a background check, boosters of the idea hoped to see results that they could pitch nationally. But they got no such thing. Per research conducted by self-professed gun-control advocate Garen Wintemute (and others), the imposition of laws requiring more background checks be conducted resulted in no more background checks being conducted in two of the three states (Washington and Colorado), and in a small rise in Delaware. "These aren't the results I hoped to see," Wintemute conceded. "I hoped to see an effect. But it's much more important to see what's actually happened." Indeed it is. Which, in turn, raises a question: Why would we extend the federal government beyond its established legal role, institute an invasive national gun registry, make it more difficult for peaceful Americans to remain in compliance with the law, and increase the number of people in prison for arcane malum prohibitum infractions in pursuit of a policy that doesn't help?
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| Fox News Reporter Publicly Rebukes Tucker Carlson: ‘White Supremacy Is Real’ Posted: 09 Aug 2019 11:35 AM PDT  Chip SomodevillaThree days after Fox News host Tucker Carlson declared on-air that white supremacy is a "hoax," his colleague, Fox News reporter Cristina Corbin, tweeted out a rebuke of the primetime star's comments, noting that his views do not represent hers."White supremacy is real, as evidenced by fact," she wrote on Friday. "Claims that it is a 'hoax' do not represent my views."Corbin is currently listed on Fox News' website as "an investigative reporter and producer based in New York." Her bio page was still active as of this article's publication. Her most recent article with Fox News, a report on Canadian murder suspects, was published on July 31.Corbin's public pushback on Carlson is reminiscent of another recent episode in which a lower-level Fox News employee publicly took a stand against a right-wing host on the network. In March, after weekend host Jeanine Pirro drew outrage for suggesting Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) didn't believe in the Constitution because she wears a hijab, several Fox employees publicly blasted the pro-Trump host. Pirro would eventually be suspended for two weeks for her on-air comments.During his Tuesday night broadcast, Carlson dismissed the notion that white supremacy is an "real problem in America," calling concerns about it a "hoax" and a "conspiracy theory" despite this past weekend's mass shooting in El Paso before which the shooter allegedly posted a white-supremacist manifesto targeting Hispanic immigrants. Carlson's remarks were swiftly met with outrage and backlash, prompting renewed calls for advertisers to drop his show and for Fox News to fire the conservative host.The network has yet to give any official comment or statement on Carlson's inflammatory remarks. The primetime host, meanwhile, announced Wednesday that he will be on vacation until Aug. 19. Fox News quickly noted that Carlson's break was pre-planned, though—perhaps coincidentally—there has long been a pattern of other Fox hosts taking "pre-planned" vacations following controversy over their on-air comments. Fox News did not immediately respond to request for comment on Corbin's tweet about Carlson.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Roadmap for India's troubled Kashmir under its new status Posted: 09 Aug 2019 04:23 AM PDT  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised early elections for the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir days after stripping the Muslim-majority region of statehood and turning it into a federally administered territory. Under its new status, the territory will have an elected assembly but will function under the control of the federal government in New Delhi. The constitutional changes also eliminate Kashmir's right to its own constitution, limit its decision-making power and allow non-Kashmiri Indians to settle there.
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| See the 2020 Chevy Corvette in Every Color Available Posted: 09 Aug 2019 08:42 AM PDT |
| Family sues Glenview nursing home over video of aides taunting woman, 91, with dementia; aides charged and fired Posted: 10 Aug 2019 07:23 AM PDT  Two nursing home aides in north suburban Glenview have been fired and charged after a Snapchat video showed them taunting a 91-year-old woman with dementia. Her family is now taking legal action.
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| Biden Says He Was Vice President During Parkland Shooting Posted: 10 Aug 2019 03:53 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Joe Biden said he was vice president when the deadly high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, took place. Except, it happened in 2018, more than a year after he left office -- the latest gaffe by the Democratic presidential front-runner.Biden told reporters in Iowa on Saturday that "those kids in Parkland came up to see me when I was vice president." But when they visited Capitol Hill to talk with members of Congress, lawmakers were "basically cowering, not wanting to see them. They did not want to face it on camera."The former vice president was making a point about the changing conversation around gun violence in this country, and how as more and more ordinary people are touched by mass shootings, they are more likely to call for action.An official with the Biden campaign said the former vice president was thinking of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, when he misspoke. That attack, in which 20 children between six and seven years old were killed along with six staff members, was in December 2012.Survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, made national headlines for their demonstrations and calls for action, including visits by some students to the nation's capital. The shooting, the deadliest high school killing spree in U.S. history, occurred on Feb. 14, 2018, and left 17 dead and injured more than a dozen others. The assailant was an expelled student.Biden, along with former Representative Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat who was shot in the head during an event with constituents in Tucson in 2011, met with Stoneman students in Washington days after the 2018 incident.The statement was the latest in a string of gaffes that have plagued Biden on the campaign trail. On Thursday, Biden, 76, told a group of Asian and Hispanic voters that "poor kids are just as bright" as white children. And last week he referred to mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, as having taken place in Houston and Michigan.In both cases he quickly caught himself. And on Saturday Biden told reporters he misspoke on his "poor kids" comment but said that overall, people understood the point he was trying to make."I don't think anybody thinks I meant anything other than what I said I meant," Biden said.President Donald Trump, who's spending the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, was quick to seize on Biden's blunder. He said on Twitter that the former vice president "doesn't have a clue." (Updates with Trump tweet in final paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Emma Kinery in Washington at ekinery@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny, Ian FisherFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Armed man arrested at Walmart in Springfield, Missouri, charged with felony Posted: 09 Aug 2019 04:07 PM PDT  Dmitriy N. Andreychenko, 20, was charged with making a terrorist threat after allegedly carrying loaded rifle into Walmart in Springfield, Missouri.
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| Man believes Trump 'ordered him' to attack child for ‘disrespecting’ national anthem by keeping hat on, lawyer says Posted: 09 Aug 2019 06:25 AM PDT A man suspected of attacking a child who was wearing a hat during the US National Anthem believed he was encouraged by Donald Trump to carry out the assault, according to his lawyer. Curt Brockway, a 39-year-old US Army veteran who was charged on Monday in the assault, suffered a traumatic brain injury in a vehicle crash in 2000 that has affected his decision making, attorney Lance Jasper told the Missoulian. The lawyer said he will seek a mental health evaluation for Mr Brockway, who seemingly became caught up in the heightened animosity and rhetoric gripping the nation, and convinced himself that he was following the president's orders."His commander in chief is telling people that if they kneel, they should be fired, or if they burn a flag, they should be punished," Mr Jasper said.He added that Mr Brockway "certainly didn't understand it was a crime."Mr Brockway told a sheriff's deputy that he asked the boy to remove his hat out of respect for the national anthem before the start of the county rodeo, Mineral County Attorney Ellen Donohue wrote in the document describing the attack.The boy reportedly cursed at Mr Brockway in response, and the man grabbed him by the throat, "lifted him into the air and slammed the boy into the ground," Ms Donohue wrote.Mr Jasper's comments arrived as prosecutors formally charged Mr Brockway with assault on a minor, a felony that carries a maximum five-year prison sentence and a $50,000 (£41,183) fine upon conviction.Prosecutors said the boy was airlifted to a hospital for a possible concussion and skull fracture. His condition was not immediately known.Conduct during the playing of the national anthem has been an issue in recent years, with some NFL players kneeling to protest police brutality. Mr Trump once called for NFL owners to fire players who kneel or engage in other acts of protest during the anthem."Trump never necessarily says go hurt somebody, but the message is absolutely clear," Mr Jasper said. "I am certain of the fact that (Brockway) was doing what he believed he was told to do, essentially, by the president. ... Everyone should learn to dial it down a little bit, from the president to Mineral County."The Associated Press contributed to this report
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| The Latest: Strict curfew eased in Kashmir, tensions high Posted: 09 Aug 2019 11:55 AM PDT  In Iran's capital, the leader of Friday prayers cautioned India over its sudden downgrading of Indian-administered Kashmir, the Hindu-majority nation's only Muslim-majority region. The semiofficial Fars News Agency said he cautioned India not to provoke a confrontation with Muslims.
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| Border Patrol Agents Shot at from Mexican Side of Rio Grande Posted: 09 Aug 2019 12:26 PM PDT  A U.S. Customs and Border Patrol boat patrolling the Rio Grande was shot at Friday morning, the agency has announced."Early this morning, agents assigned to the Rio Grande City Station Marine Unit patrolling near Fronton, Texas, reported they were fired upon from the Mexican riverbank," CBP said in a statement released Friday morning. "Agents saw four subjects with automatic weapons who shot over 50 rounds at them. The boat was hit several times but no one on board was injured."Running along the Texas–Mexico border, the Rio Grande is a hotbed of illegal immigration. Smugglers routinely expose migrants to unsafe conditions in order to raft them across the river into U.S. territory. The perilous but common journey captured national attention in June after a photo emerged of a father and daughter who drowned while trying to cross the river. The photo, which went viral on social media and appeared in newspapers around the world, showed 25-year-old Oscar Ramirez face down on the river bank next to his two-year-old daughter.CBP had rescued 63 migrants from the river this year as of April 26.
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| Virginia transgender bathroom case: Judge favors ex-student Posted: 09 Aug 2019 05:06 PM PDT  A federal judge in Virginia ruled Friday that a school board's transgender bathroom ban discriminated against a former student, Gavin Grimm, the latest in a string of decisions nationwide that favor transgender students who faced similar policies. The order issued by U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen in Norfolk is a major victory for the American Civil Liberties Union and for Grimm.
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| Southern separatists overrun barracks in Yemen's Aden Posted: 09 Aug 2019 05:22 PM PDT  Southern separatists gained ground across Yemen's second city Aden on Saturday and surrounded the presidential palace as they fought fierce battles with loyalist forces, military and security sources said. Deadly fighting raging in Aden since Wednesday is pitting unionist forces loyal to the internationally recognised government against a force that supports it but is dominated by fighters seeking renewed independence for the south. The force, known as the Security Belt, overran three military barracks belonging to unionist forces and were surrounding the presidential palace, sources close to the Security Belt said.
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| 'Unreal scene': Police say shooting melee on Houston highway likely drug-related Posted: 09 Aug 2019 11:05 AM PDT  Two people were killed in a shooting on Interstate 10 in Texas on Thursday evening, Houston Police said.
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| Jeffrey Epstein dies by suicide in Manhattan jail; Death raises 'serious questions,' AG Barr says Posted: 10 Aug 2019 02:57 PM PDT  U.S. Attorney General William Barr said the suicide death of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein raises "serious questions that must be answered." The FBI is investigating.
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| 8 things science has shown to be strongly linked with more gun violence — and 2 things that are not Posted: 09 Aug 2019 05:19 AM PDT  Mental illness and video games are not linked to gun violence. But domestic abuse and access to guns are.
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| Pakistan court remands opposition leader to custody on graft charges Posted: 09 Aug 2019 04:37 AM PDT  Some supporters of Pakistan's largest opposition party threw punches on Friday in clashes with police as a top leader, Maryam Nawaz, was remanded to custody on corruption charges filed by a national anti-graft agency. Maryam, daughter of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and a scion of the family that dominated politics for three decades, was arrested over fraud accusations at a sugar mill her family runs, one of several cases it says are politically motivated. "I knew that it would be a tough situation for me to launch a political struggle but I will not budge," Maryam told reporters shortly before she appeared in court in the city of Lahore, to be denied bail and remanded until August 21.
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| US defends migrant sweep that left sobbing children not knowing where they were going to eat Posted: 09 Aug 2019 07:23 AM PDT  US authorities have defended a migrant raid that left sobbing children not knowing where they were going to eat.Immigration officials arrested 680 mostly Latino workers working at seven Mississippi chicken processing plants on Wednesday morning.Children were left waiting to be picked up from school and without knowing where they would eat or spend the night because the operation was kept secret, including from the White House, according to local reports.An 11-year-old girl was filmed crying as she pleaded for her father to be released.Magdalena Gomez Gregorio told reporters: "I'm scared and crying because of my dad and mum. I want my dad."A lot of us children are crying. I'm not going to have nothing for the first day of school for me."Now I don't know where I'm going to eat."More than 100 civil rights activists, union organisers and clergy members in Mississippi have denounced the raid.However Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) director Matthew Albence insisted the "textbook" operation was carried out "in a safe manner".The raid, planned months ago, is the largest workplace sting in at least a decade.About 300 of those arrested were sent home by dawn on Thursday with notices to appear before immigration judges, according to ICE spokesman Bryan Cox.Among those released were 18 youngsters, including a 14-year-old child.Workers were assessed before they were released, including for whether they had any young children at home.Neighbours reportedly rallied round to look after children after they returned home from school to find their parents missing.A Mississippi school superintendent said more than 150 students in his district remained absent from classes on Thursday, with many kept at home out of fear after the immigration raids rocked two towns in his county.Scott County Superintendent Tony McGee said officials were trying to coax pupils back to school.The 4,100-student school district scrambled to make plans in case no one came for students on Wednesday in the aftermath of the morning raids.Mr McGee said the district learned of the raids when parents began appearing to check students out from school on Wednesday morning.He claimed ICE officials only reached out hours later about the raids.However Jere Miles, who is in charge of the New Orleans office of the Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) unit which organised the raids, said those arrested were given access to phones to make arrangements for their children, The Washington Post reports.The companies involved could be charged with knowingly hiring workers who are in the country illegally and will be scrutinised for tax, document and wage fraud, according to ICE director Mr Albence.AP contributed to this report.
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| Here's the Story Behind That Controversial 'Backless Seats' Photo Posted: 09 Aug 2019 12:50 PM PDT  EasyJet told TIME that the flight departed with five spare seats
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| Yemen govt decries UAE-backed 'coup' after separatists seize palace Posted: 10 Aug 2019 01:48 PM PDT Southern separatists in Yemen said Saturday they had seized the presidential palace in the second city Aden after fierce battles with loyalist forces, prompting the government to decry what it called a UAE-backed "coup". The deadly clashes reflect deep divisions between secessionists and loyalist forces, both of whom have fought Shiite Huthi rebels. Yemeni President Abderabbo Mansour Hadi, based in Saudi Arabia, is backed by a Riyadh-led coalition battling the Huthis who hail from Yemen's north.
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| 'Hunt' movie canceled: Universal Pictures shelves controversial thriller in wake of shootings Posted: 10 Aug 2019 03:29 PM PDT  Universal Pictures has canceled the planned September release of its controversial social thriller "The Hunt" in the wake of recent mass shootings and criticism from President Donald Trump.
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| View 2020 Mercedes-AMG CLA45 S Photos Posted: 09 Aug 2019 04:59 PM PDT |
| Mexico detains migrant children in cramped holding center despite court ruling Posted: 09 Aug 2019 01:40 PM PDT ![Mexico detains migrant children in cramped holding center despite court ruling]( "Mexico detains migrant children in cramped holding center despite court ruling") Overcrowding, prison-like conditions, bed bugs and illness are among the complaints of migrants in a Mexico City detention center that holds dozens of minors two months after a court ruled it was unconstitutional. Under the threat of economic sanctions from U.S. President Donald Trump, Mexico has stepped up migrant detentions this year to stem a surge in asylum-seekers from Central America. Known as Las Agujas, the Mexico City holding center enclosed by spike-topped walls in the eastern district of Iztapalapa held about 108 minors as of this week, some of whom are unaccompanied, said Jesus Quintana, who monitors the station for the Mexican human rights ombudsman's office (CNDH).
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| Man jailed for saying AOC ‘should be shot’ tells police he’s ‘very proud’ he did it Posted: 10 Aug 2019 03:44 AM PDT An Ohio man charged after writing on Facebook that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez "should be shot" told police he was "very proud" that he did it.Timothy James Ireland, 41, was indicted in Toledo for making interstate threats against AOC in addition to separate counts of being a felon and fugitive in possession of a firearm, the US attorney's office in Ohio announced on Friday.Officials say a concerned citizen reached out to U.S. Capitol Police on July 23 to warn of the threatening Facebook post, which they later confirmed was written by Ireland."She should be shot. Can't fire me, my employer would load the gun for me," Ireland wrote, according to police.The statement was apparently posted to Facebook along with a news story about the Democrat congresswoman, leading Capitol Police to call Ireland on August 2 after finding his phone number in public records.The man took full responsibility for the statement while speaking with police, adding he was "very proud" of his work, according to a criminal complaint.Ireland also admitted to having firearms that he "always carries concealed," police say.An FBI criminal history check revealed Ireland had two outstanding warrants, one for violating probation in a felony case in Florida and the other related to a failure to appear for a possession of marijuana charge in Cook County, Georgia.Ireland was also convicted in 1996 on four felony counts of dealing in stolen property in Sarasota County, according to the criminal complaint.The man was present when police raided his Toledo home five days after the phone call, the complaint read. He was detained for the active warrants and admitted to having ammunition inside his house.Investigators say they found three rounds of .32-caliber ammunition, and four rounds belonging to a .45-caliber weapon, stashed in kitchen drawers."There is absolutely no place in the marketplace of ideas for threats of violence against any person, especially those who are elected to represent the American people," US Attorney Justin Herdman said in a release."Disagreement on political issues cannot lead to acts of violence, and if it does, we will seek federal prison time."A spokesman for the Department of Justice said Ireland waived his hearing and will remain in custody at least until a bond hearing next week.Last month a police officer in the US state of Louisiana also took to Facebook to say AOC should be shot, suggesting that she "needs a round – and I don't mean the kind she used to serve".Charlie Rispoli, a 14-year veteran of the police department in Gretna, went on to call her "this vile idiot". He was sacked.His comments came after Donald Trump lashed out at 'The Squad', a group of four congresswoman including AOC, in a roundly condemned racist attack where he told them to "go back" to their countries \- despite them having lived in the US for decades.The Washington Post
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| Trump again sides with Kim Jong Un over long-time ally as North Korea fires off more missiles Posted: 09 Aug 2019 08:56 AM PDT  Trump said he agreed with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on the US-South Korean war games. "You know, I've never liked it either," he said.
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| Man who alleged police locked him in closet awarded $50M Posted: 10 Aug 2019 12:50 PM PDT ![Man who alleged police locked him in closet awarded $50M]( "Man who alleged police locked him in closet awarded $50M") A jury in Cleveland on Friday awarded $50 million to a man who claimed police beat him while he was handcuffed and locked him in a storage closet for four days with no toilet and nothing to eat or drink but a carton of milk. A different Cuyahoga County jury awarded Black $22 million in June 2016 during a three-day trial where no attorneys representing East Cleveland attended. The city subsequently appealed, and the lawsuit was sent back to Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court for another trial.
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| Clashes kill 70 combatants in northwest Syria: monitor Posted: 10 Aug 2019 01:09 PM PDT  Clashes between regime loyalists and insurgents in northwest Syria killed 70 combatants on Saturday, as government forces continued to nibble away at territory held by its opponents, a war monitor said. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a jihadist group led by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate, has since January controlled most of Idlib province as well as parts of neighbouring Hama, Aleppo and Latakia provinces. Fighting in northern Hama, southern Idlib and rural Latakia on Saturday claimed the lives of 32 pro-government forces as well as 38 jihadists and allied rebels, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
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| Social Security sent out some wrong estimates. What you need to know Posted: 09 Aug 2019 10:08 AM PDT  A very limited number of paper statements that showed estimated benefits in retirement ended up wrong. Here's why and what consumers need to know.
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| A lioness at a German zoo ate her 2 cubs just days after they were born, and zookeepers are shocked Posted: 09 Aug 2019 04:21 AM PDT  Kigali the lioness gave birth to her first cubs on Friday and initially seemed to be taking good care of them, the zoo said.
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| Eliminate the Mortgage Interest Deduction Posted: 09 Aug 2019 03:30 AM PDT  (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Economists have long hated the mortgage interest deduction, but U.S. politicians have long considered it untouchable. Then, in 2017 — after much wrangling and over the objections of several suburban members of Congress — Republicans capped the deduction as part of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act.Now there is some new evidence on the effects of that law — and the case for entirely eliminating the mortgage interest deduction just got a little stronger. Not only would its elimination free up revenue for other priorities and simplify the tax code, it is unlikely to have a negative effect on homeowners.After 1986, when Congress eliminated the deductibility of interest on personal loans and increased the size of the standard deduction, the mortgage interest deduction was on life support. Add in the factor of declining interest rates, and the deduction was nearly useless for the vast majority of taxpayers.The National Association of Realtors responded with a media campaign warning Americans that any effort to cut the deduction would mean the end of the American Dream. Congress abandoned the effort. Over time, home prices have steadily risen, and the deduction has become enshrined as an untouchable middle-class benefit.Even the 2017 effort was a compromise. House Republicans wanted to cap the benefit at the first $500,000 of a mortgage balance. The Senate raised the cap to $750,000 and grandfathered in existing homeowners.The $750,000 limit was set so that the deduction would hit primarily the jumbo mortgage market. At the time, one prominent study estimated that only 14% of taxpayers would find it worthwhile to claim the deduction.Yet as the New York Times reports, citing IRS data, only 8% of taxpayers claimed the deduction in 2018, compared to 21% in 2017. Even more important, the percentage of taxpayers earning $100,000 to $200,000 annually who claimed the deduction declined from 61% to 21%. For upper-middle-class families, the mortgage interest deduction went from being a benefit for the majority to one for a minority.Yet away from the coasts, there has been little price paid — politically or economically. The new law seems to have had only a modest effect on home prices. In San Francisco and New York City, the rise in home prices has slowed, but prices have not fallen as far as the industry predicted.Nonetheless, the National Association of Realtors is lobbying to weaken the effects of the 2017 tax reforms — even though the evidence shows that the cap is both more effective than proponents hoped and less damaging than opponents feared. Congress should act now to completely eliminate the mortgage interest deduction before the movement to revive it gains any steam.To contact the author of this story: Karl W. Smith at ksmith602@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Newman at mnewman43@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Karl W. Smith is a former assistant professor of economics at the University of North Carolina's school of government and founder of the blog Modeled Behavior.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| UPDATE 2-China orders Cathay Pacific to suspend staff backing Hong Kong protests Posted: 09 Aug 2019 05:57 AM PDT ![UPDATE 2-China orders Cathay Pacific to suspend staff backing Hong Kong protests]( "UPDATE 2-China orders Cathay Pacific to suspend staff backing Hong Kong protests") HONG KONG/BEIJING, Aug 9 (Reuters) - China's aviation regulator on Friday demanded Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways suspend personnel who have engaged in illegal protests in the city from staffing flights into its airspace from August 10. Hong Kong has been embroiled in increasingly violent anti-government street protests for the past two months, which a top Chinese official described this week as the greatest crisis since its return from British to Chinese rule in 1997.
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